Place:Armstrong Grove (township), Emmet, Iowa, United States

This township includes Township 99, Range 31.

History

"In March, 1856, a man named Armstrong made his way up the Des Moines River from Fort Dodge looking for a location. In the grove on Section 36, Township 99, Range 31, he selected 160 acres for his claim. No white men were living near, and worn out by his journey he became lonesome, homesick and discouraged and as soon as the weather settled in the spring he returned to Mitchell County. The place where he selected his claim is still known as Armstrong's Grove and when the township was organized the name was conferred upon it. The first permanent settlement in that part of the county was made in 1864, when George Demmon settled in Section 36, near the place where the man Armstrong located eight years before, and Daniel W. Perry took a claim in Section 25 adjoining on the north. They were soon followed by James Thompson, Samuel Thoburn (a Scotchman), John Carroll and the Parson, Dundas and Campbell families, most of whom settled along the Des Moines in the eastern part of the township. Edward Donovan, another early settler, located a claim on the Black Cat Creek, not far from the present village of Halfa. David Weir came in the fall of 1869 and bought George Demmon's farm in Section 36." [1]

Sources

• 1. History of Emmet County and Dickinson County, Iowa, 1:111